In Past Show

About Angus Fairhurst

Angus Fairhurst was a quiet member of the Young British Artists (YBA), the late 1980s movement typically associated with the flash and notoriety of artists Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Fairhurst, a classmate, close friend, and influencer of Hirst, was instrumental in organizing the “Freeze” exhibition of 1988, which launched the YBAs and shaped the ensuing decades in British contemporary art. Fairhurst’s conceptual work—which includes sculpture, painting, performance, photography, video, music, printmaking, drawing, and collage—is marked by an anti-establishment sense of humor. In a 1991 commentary on the self-referential qualities of the art world, Fairhurst staged a performance titled Gallery Connections; he connected the phones of London’s premiere contemporary art dealers so that they could only talk to each other. Fairhurst is best known for the recurring motif of gorillas in his work across media.